TDNet Discover

Background: Hematologic malignancy protocols currently reflect successful treatment with potential risks of infection, relapse, graft rejection, and death. GVHD is a condition where the donor cells of a transplant begin to attack the recipient. This reaction unfortunately can occur at any time after transplantation. Purpose: This research sought to find a correlation between umbilical cord blood and its derivatives for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and their impact on GVHD outcomes. This was conducted via searching scholastic databases and determining which articles met journal qualifications per NHLBI. According to the research, there is an increased incidence of acute GVHD (aGVHD) seen when patients are treated with UCBTs versus that of HSCTs, but there also appears to be a significantly lower incidence of cGVHD and extensive chronic GVHD (cGVHD) when treated with UCBTs which suggests further research is needed to assess risk versus benefit of its use.